16th June 2016

The winning team does not change and even today we take home an important result! Early in the morning we went immediately to the village, July, where we left the equipment last night and we discover that 3 village leaders had an extraordinary meeting at night to decide that the well should not be done where we had planned, that is, in the center of the village, but among the 3 neighboring villages so it will be useful to all 3. And if it suits them … who are we to prevent it? On the other hand, the chief of village is the only “bureaucracy” that we have to face here. And so let it be. The excavation went on smoothly and before lunch we had already found the water! And this year’s third Wishing Well is also done. As always, a big party which I didn’t hold back today, by going for a fresh shower from the spring and carrying two children in my arms who perhaps had never taken a shower in life. After lunch in the village (and after having taken back my clothes which I had hung up to dry in the meantime) we had to decide what to do in the afternoon. In the two previous days the rumors had obviously spread, as well as last year, and also this year there was no shortage of processions of women who came from neighboring villages to ask to make a well for them too. In particular, a woman went 8 + 8 km yesterday to ask me for the well in her village. She made the request in the morning and I told her I had to think about it … last night on the way back, at 8pm,in the middle of a road lost in nothingness the woman was still there (because she knew that from there we had to go back) and she stopped us begging and asking for the well. Tomorrow we will go and see if the conditions are met, we will make the fourth well there. In fact, I say fourth, fifth!
Yes, because in recent days I have received another request to make a well in a hospital in Balaka where there is maternity and pediatrics and where people are treated free of charge up to 15 years of age. Everything is managed by a cooperative that sent me this request. The hospital is reached, sometimes, by the government’s water, but there are periods when there are also weeks without water. And these periods are now more and more frequent and constant. The only alternative is the well. I then spoke to the team leader and we found the agreement to make this well not foreseen in my plans but, I thought, indispensable. We worked all afternoon until late in the light of the jeep’s headlights. We found water, but not as much as we hoped for. Tomorrow morning we have to do some flow tests to check if it will then be possible to put an electric pump or leave it manual. The ideal, in this structure, would be the electric pump that fills the tanks but this can be put only if the amount of water in the water table is sufficient, otherwise the pump will burn out. Alternatively, manual water … which is always better than nothing. Well with almost four wells made, I would say it’s time for a beer and then … good night!